I have never read anything by Peter Swanson before but, after reading this, I am certain he is on my ‘must read’ list. The novel begins with Kate Priddy, who has left London for a six month apartment swap with a cousin she has never met – Corbin Dell – in Boston. From the beginning, we are aware that Kate was the victim of an event which has left her deeply traumatised, so this is a big step for her. Unfortunately, on arrival at Corbin’s beautiful apartment, she almost immediately discovers that his next door neighbour, a young woman involved in publishing named Audrey Marshall, has been murdered.

Kate has planned to take some classes in design and illustration; drawing and sketching calms her and she is able to reproduce faces after only one meeting. At first, she meets neighbours, but all is definitely not as calm as the surface seems. Detective Roberta James is keen to search Corbin’s apartment, which seems to have no imprint of his life in the tidy, but devoid of any real personality, rooms. Then there is the attractive Alan Cherney, who lives in the apartment opposite Audrey Marshall’s and seemed to have an obsession with her, which reminds her uncomfortably of events in her own past. Lastly, there is the man who claims to be Audrey’s friend, who hangs about outside the apartments and approaches Kate more than once.

Trying to shake off her feelings that something is wrong and knowing that what happened to her has made her somewhat paranoid, Kate tries to settle down into normal life. However, gradually, as the story unfolds, we learn about not only Kate’s past, but also that of the other characters and realise that danger lurks in the very place that Kate has fled to, to start a new life. This is a very creepy, well written and excellently plotted novel. I was really impressed with this – dark, twisted and scary, with characters you will care about. I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

Disturbingly creepy with rich characterization!

This story is predominantly set in Boston, Massachusetts and is told from multiple perspectives, including Kate, a recent victim of kidnapping who agrees to apartment swap with her cousin in hopes of a fresh start; Corbin, the intelligent, remote, secretive cousin; and Alan, the introverted neighbour with a fondness for people watching.

The writing is smooth and precise. The characters are varied, intriguing and dark. And the plot, although not exceptionally fast-paced, does a good job of creating suspense, fear and tension through a character driven storyline and an unconventional narration style in which the same story is retold from differing points of view.

Ultimately, this is a story about secrets, lies, deception, jealousy, manipulation, obsession and murder.

Overall, I have to say I really enjoyed this novel. It is definitely a well written, fascinating thriller that reminds us that sometimes there lies a complex, deranged, horrifying mind behind the normal facade.

Thank you to NetGalley, especially Faber & Faber Ltd., for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Some may think that Kate Priddy is a “glass-half-empty” person, who always anticipates the worst possible scenario. But after having suffered a brutal attack at the hands of her ex-lover which nearly cost her her life, Kate knows that her fears are often justified.

“Bad things happen to me. Bad people happen to me.”

So it is with some trepidation that Kate agrees to a 6-months house swap with her American cousin Corbin, whom she has never met. Soon after her arrival in Boston, Kate’s worst fears are once again confirmed when a woman in the neighbouring flat is found dead under suspicious circumstances. Initially believing this to be a tragic but unrelated event, Kate is alarmed to find links between the dead woman and Corbin, who is now living in her apartment in London and denies having had any contact with the dead woman apart from innocent neighbourly encounters. At the same time, strange things are happening in Kate’s life – she is sure that things have been moved out of place in the flat and that her artwork has been tampered with. Initially writing off these incidences as manifestations of her own anxiety and growing paranoia, Kate becomes increasingly worried that Corbin was somehow involved in the events leading to his neighbour’s death. By staying in the apartment, is Kate putting her own life in danger?

I loved the premise of Her Every Fear, and it proved to be a tense, suspenseful and unputdownable psychological thriller, giving me goose bumps and fully living up to all of my expectations. Apart from serving up true-to-life, believable characters, Swanson very cleverly incorporates other features into this often creepy tale of murder and depravity, like Sanders the cat, who is instrumental to the storyline in a way you won’t suspect. Thus setting the atmosphere and letting the characters do the rest of the work, the book played out like a black and white Hitchcockian movie in my head. There is a dark and chilly undercurrent of menace and danger running through the entire book, often escalating in seemingly innocent observations that, in the context of the story, sent shivers down my spine:

“She noticed a slight indentation on the blanket, and looked closer. There were white hairs – Sander’s hairs – and Kate pressed her hand on the bed; it was still a little warm from where he had his afternoon nap. That was why the door was ajar.”

Other scenes will pray on your most innermost fears of having your private spaces invaded by evil – I would love to give a couple of examples but will refrain from doing so in case it gives away spoilers. Let me just say that one of them involves Kate’s toothbrush - ugh! Her Every Fear is not an action packed or particularly fast moving thriller – here the thrills are packaged in the everyday, the mundane, the places you would never expect them to lurk, taking you back to your most basic fears, like Kate’s journey down the back stairs into the basement of the house. For me this was the best thing about the book: the spine tingling moments of anticipation and terror sneaking up on me where I least expected them. As for the characters – can you really trust any of them? Even Kate herself, who may (or may not) be an unreliable narrator due to her anxiety and paranoia may not always give a true account of events. Even Sanders was a bit suspicious, and he is a cat!

I was worried that the tension would be broken, the mystery spoiled, by the introduction of the villain, but Swanson even manages to pull this off perfectly. There aren’t many novels where exploring the mind of a depraved killer works so well – Swanson has managed to strike the right balance between allowing us a peek into the killer’s mind without giving too much away or pushing the novel over the thin line of “too much information”. A rare skill indeed, and one which made this a stand-out read for me to cap off 2016.

Her Every Fear was an excellent read, a must for every lover of true psychological thrillers that mess with your mind and haunt you long after the last page has been turned.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a free electronic copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Hmmm....mixed feelings on this book. Left me feeling like I wanted something more from it. I was bored with parts of it. Every time I felt it was really going somewhere it kind of plateaued out.

The plot seemed great, it's just the delivery of it didn't do much for me. Too much telling. When a plot is told from many perspectives but you've already worked out most of each individual's story it gets a bit bland and boring. I admit I skipped a few pages in this one.

It was repetitive telling. You've been told it before, then you hear it again...and again. It took away all the suspense and watered down the thrills. This was where it fell down for me as a reader. Who wants to hear the same story re-told over and over?

The best character by far is Kate Priddy who does an apartment swap with her cousin. She comes to Boston, he goes to London for six months. The minute she moves in the neighbour is found murdered. I was ready for a great read and parts of it were very well done, just not all.

I didn't feel it was a true thriller, more a murder mystery with the odd thrill. The first half of the book I loved. The second half is where it lost me. Again - too much telling of things that I, as a reader could already see.

It's not a bad book by any means, just in comparison to other books read recently it was missing the x-factor that would have pushed my rating up. I really wish the multiple perspectives had not been so drawn out at the end.

There are some highlights. Sanders the cat was a great character.Other characters I felt were lacking in depth somewhat, apart from Kate. The ending surprised me, I didn't think it "fitted" somehow but that's my opinion. There was no sign that thoughts OR feelings matched the outcome. As if added as an after thought.

An okay read but I'll probably forget this one quickly and I'm wondering if I'll try other books by this author. I feel like I've given you all negatives, sorry about that. I did enjoy most of it, just not all of it. Maybe you will like it more. It's had some good reviews. 3 stars from me.

Excellent book - gripping from the first chapter. Her Every Fear is a definite must-read, tense throughout and well written.
Peter Swanson obviously has a talent for writing page turners, and this is certainly one. He consistently produces gripping tales and is an author I would have no hesitation in recommending.
Thank you.

Kate, our anxiety riddled main character, has just flat swapped with her American cousin in order to boost her confidence and try to escape her haunted past for a little while, but as soon as she arrives at her cousin's luxurious apartment, things begin to go sour. Her new next door neighbour has been murdered, and her secretive American cousin seems to the main suspect.

This could have been so good. Swanson’s last hit novel, The Kind Worth Killing (aw look at my baby review) was so goddamn exciting and thrilling but this was completely missing whatever spark the other had. A co-reviewer (Maxi/Slothreads) commented that this book was “uninspired” and I couldn’t have put that any better myself, hence why I’m quoting it. This had potential to work and be great but I feel like Swanson was pushed for time by his editors on this and spewed out whatever came to mind first. I know I sound like a total arse for saying that but I’m just really disappointed in this novel! Warning: some spoilers ahead.

Let’s start off by talking about our uninteresting characters. Kate suffers from anxiety disorder, made a lot worse by a terrifying incident she had with her ex boyfriend, so she decides to travel across the pond and into her cousin's apartment. While anxiety is something I’m all too familiar with, I don’t actually have any sympathy for Kate, as we’re supposed to. If she was really as damaged as she is made out to be, I find it very hard to believe she would move to America for 6 months all by herself, make friends and chat with everyone she comes across and sleep with a guy, Alan, who’s admitted to be a creepy window watcher after 3 days of knowing him.
Next comes ol’ cousin Corbin who’s a cliche jock. Swanson makes him out to be the guilt ridden, caring man but after the revelation of his bad deeds in the past, how are we supposed to like him or feel sorry for him? It makes all the empathetic talk from him seem so creepy. Our only interesting character is, of course, the psycho. A bit of an over-the-top, cliche psycho, but at least worth reading about.

My main issue with this novel is the repetition of scenes. Our narrator chops and changes several times in the novel, so we’re often presented with a retelling of what we’ve already been told by another narrator. I’d say that at least 25% of this book is a repeat of a part we’ve already read, so it gets very tedious, very quickly. Another issue with this novel is the lack of plot twist, I mean, there is a plot twist, but it’s not that exciting and it happens early on in the novel, so the rest of the book plays out exactly how you would expect it to. Can I also quickly just complain about the unnecessary focus on the fact that Alan is Jewish? It made me uncomfortable. And that Swanson should have done some more research into England because we don’t have £100 notes.

This novel had great potential, but in the end, it was a let down. The “ending” was terribly mediocre and then the remaining chapters were a waste of time to read, they really could have been removed.

Thanks to Netgalley and Faber & Faber Ltd for giving me the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.

Kate, reeling from a complicated past, decides to get away from her life and move across the ocean to participate in a house swap with her cousin, Corbin. He has a new job in London and she has never been to America; it seems like the perfect fit. Upon her arrival to Boston, Kate is shocked to find out that the neighbor next to Corbin’s apartment, Audrey Marshall, has been brutally murdered. When the police question Kate about her cousin and the relationship to Audrey, she is unable to give them many answers but begins her own investigation into the murder. As she digs deeper and deeper into the investigation, she begins to see maybe she is in danger and when the danger Kate imagines isn’t as twisted or deadly as what is about to happen, her every fear becomes very real…
Read more…

The Kind Worth Killing was one of the first thriller novels that I become obsessed with; Swanson’s delivery and complexity had me addicted. Well, Peter Swanson has done it again with his newest release, Her Every Fear.

This book was completely not what I was expecting; I knew that Swanson could weave a good story but I had no idea that this one would be so complex, unnerving and downright creepy. Initially, I found it to be incredibly slow moving, but then the story kicked into high gear and I was unable to put it down! This novel was dangerously addicting.

The characters were well developed and complex and this novel is told in the coolest narrative style; although we hear the most from Kate, our broken protagonist, we get multiple character perspectives but instead of alternating between characters and picking up and leaving their individual stories, we are able to get the same scenes from different character point of views. I absolutely loved this. It fit completely with the novel’s overarching theme of appearance vs. reality. Sometimes how the scene appears is not how it is in reality at all. I also loved how we were able to get inside the character’s minds. There wasn’t a whole lot going on in this book, instead, the tension is driven by the characters own mental development and their own demons.

I rated this one a 5/5 stars. If you love a good, tense thriller, then this book is a no-brainer. Add it to your TBR lists. This one is on sale January 10, 2017!

It was always going to be hard for Peter Swanson to follow up on The Kind Worth Killing. This book isn't as good - that was a big ask - but it's a perfectly acceptable diversion that keeps you guessing as it twists and turns. Everytime I thought it was turning into a predictable story, it would give me another angle which had me guessing again.

The book opens with Kate coming to Boston from the UK, for a six month house swap with a cousin she's never met. Kate is prone to extreme anxiety - she's all panic attacks and nervous tics. So she doesn't react well when it turns out that the woman in the apartment next door to hers has been killed and it appears that her cousin Corbin knew her.

The story is told from multiple points of view - there is Kate, there is Alan who lives in the same apartment block and was somewhat obsessed with the dead woman, and later Corbin's story is also introduced. Each point of view is unreliable. Kate's anxieties and jetlag make her question what she thinks is happening. Alan seems like a nice guy, but there is something incomplete about his story. Corbin is full of contradictions. So as the reader, you keep leaping to conclusions, and then doubting them, and then changing your mind again. It reminded me of Into The Darkest Corner or Before I Go to Sleep in the way that it keeps you re-evaluating the characters and changing your mind about who can be trusted.

But. The pace is a little slow and the ending is more than a little ridiculous. It also felt like Swanson didn't know how to actually end the book, because it keeps going and you're thinking "oh there's going to be another twist, what could it be?"...but there isn't. So while I thought the first 75% of the book was gripping and clever, I felt quite disappointed in the final quarter.

I read an ARC provided by Net Galley.

Ooo, this book was deliciously dark and twisted. I was really looking forward to reading it as I had already read and loved both of this author's previous books (The Kind Worth Killing and The Girl with a Clock for a Heart) so I had high expectations going in and I am pleased to report that Mr Swanson didn't disappoint.
Kate has had a bit of a past so she suffers a bit from anxiety and panic but she grabs the bull by the horns and agrees to a flat swap with a distant cousin, Corbin, who needs to move to England for work. In return for her flat there, he offers her his rather swanky apartment in Boston, Mass.
Corbin has a bit of a past too, but that's all I am going to say here!
So, the day after Kate moves into Corbin's place, the body of his neighbour is discovered. Murdered.
What happens next is a roller coaster of shocking twists and turns as we follow Kate and a variety of others as we race along to a rather explosive ending.
I read this book start to finish in a day. I really didn't want to be parted from it for even a second as I became so immersed in the storyline I just had to know what happened. What really impressed me about this book is the way it was plotted. How there were loads of small innocuous things that could be written off as forgetfulness and jet-lag and that, in isolation, mean very little but when taken together, all start to add up. In that way, I found that the tension built up slowly rather than being in your face but that really suited the theme and ambience of the actual story being told.
I also really liked the same scene being retold from a different character's pov. I find that for certain books, this can be a really good way of building characters if done well, and here it is very effective as it really let me get into the minds of some of the characters.
There are psychological thrillers that hit the ground running and although being psychological in nature they come across as more thriller in execution. This book isn't that. It is much more cerebral rather than physical. To get the most out of this book, I had to slow down my reading and really concentrate on every word. As I have found from his other books, there is so much that is subtle contained within the writing that, if I read at my usual speedy pace, I found that I missed so much.
Characters are one of this author's strong points and those in this book are no exception. Although I didn't actually like Kate as a person (character) I still managed to make a connection with her and so my actual opinion of her didn't make any difference to my enjoyment of the book. Other characters were also well drawn and easy to emote with / connect to. I am not going to cite examples as I think this is another book that you need to read to make your own minds up about them.
All in all, a cracking read for me that left me completely satisfied at the end. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.